EC rejects Congress charges of irregularities in Haryana Assembly election

Election Commission dismisses Congress allegations of irregularities in Haryana election, warns against baseless complaints to avoid unrest.

The Election Commission on Tuesday (October 29, 2024) rejected as “baseless” allegations made by the Congress of irregularities in the Haryana Assembly election and cautioned it and other political parties against “unfounded and sensational” complaints at sensitive junctures such as polling and counting days.

In a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the commission said “irresponsible” allegations can lead to public unrest, turbulence, and chaos.

Also read: Haryana polls: Why did Congress’s higher vote share in rural areas not translate into more seats?

“The commission would also like to recall that, seen in retrospect, INC is persistently raising unfounded doubts on the ‘core’ aspects of Indian electoral process, with a sort of discernible pattern of timelines and approach,” it said.

The poll body said the Congress should refrain from making baseless allegations election after election and asserted that each step in the electoral process in Haryana was flawless and done under the watch of Congress candidates or agents

The commission said that while it normally refrained from responding to grievances relating to constituency- specific decentralised electoral processes, it was duty-bound to protect and defend the integrity of the core design of this statutory decentralised scheme that was being sought to be eroded by “generic” petitions or grievances setting out “false narratives without any evidence whatsoever, raised in proximity to polling or counting day, which have serious potential to fuel the surcharged environment”.

The poll body said there was a noticeable and documented trend of picking up any ordinary aspect of the electronic voting machine (EVM) system for projecting it as a “new or fresh doubt” at the national level.  It urged the Congress to take firm and concrete steps and curb tendency of frivolous complaints